Cut the Map, Devalue the Vote, Do It All Over Again

This Monday’s installment of Saying The Quiet Parts Out Loud comes from the newly insane state of North Carolina, where Art Pope’s sublet state legislature is in federal court trying to extricate itself from the gerrymandered mess it made out of the state’s election maps while simultaneously maintaining the advantage that those maps gave to the Republican Party. The court appointed a special master to oversee the re-drawing of the legislative districts, a thankless job that I wouldn’t do if you put an AK-47 in my ear. The special master presented his new maps last week, and the lawyer representing the Republicans in the legislature had this to say. From the Raleigh News and Observer:

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Phil Strach, the Raleigh-based attorney representing Republican lawmakers who led the redistricting in 2017, reiterated his argument that judges hired Persily prematurely. He argued that no evidence existed that lawmakers had used race as a predominant factor in the drawing of the lines. He argued, as lawmakers asserted, that race was not considered in the redrawing of districts in August. Republican lawmakers said their goal was to protect incumbent lawmakers and try to keep counties and voting precincts whole when possible. “We all know in North Carolina that sometimes race correlates with party, political performance,” Strach said. “... There has been no evidence so far that what the state was doing was looking at race.”

It's not About Race because nothing ever is About Race. We all know that, right? Mr. Strach’s case was not strengthened by the fact that the guy who drew the original maps apparently has declined to take part in the effort to repair the damage he did, or even to explain the criteria by which he did it.

Thomas Hofeller, the veteran mapmaker for the state and national Republican parties, drew both sets of maps – the 2011 plans that courts ruled included 28 unconstitutional gerrymanders, and the plans proposed to remedy those problems. He did not testify at the hearing Friday or at any last year about the criteria or mapmaking data he used. “The burden is on the state to come to this court and indicate it has cured the racial gerrymanders,” Speas said. “What’s missing is Hofeller. Where’s Hofeller? The General Assembly said. ‘We’re not going to use race,’ but do we know what Hofeller did? No, we do not.”

Hofeller’s been at this mischief for years, as this 2012 piece by Bob Draper from The Atlantic demonstrates.

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But Hofeller’s helpful tips give way to the sinister warnings of a gimlet-eyed, semi-­clandestine political operative: “Make sure your security is real.” “Make sure your computer is in a PRIVATE location.” “ ‘Emails are the tool of the devil.’ Use personal contact or a safe phone!” “Don’t reveal more than necessary.” “BEWARE of non­-partisan, or bi­-partisan, staff bearing gifts. They probably are not your friends.” Be discreet. Plan ahead. Follow the law. Don’t overreach. Tom Hofeller relishes the blood sport of redistricting, but there is a responsible way—as Hofeller himself demonstrated this past cycle in the artful (if baldly partisan) redrawing of North Carolina’s maps—and also a reckless way. So that his message will penetrate, he tells audiences horror stories about states that ignored his warnings and went with maps that either were tossed out by the federal courts or created more political problems than they solved.

Already Hofeller has picked out which cautionary tale he will relay during the next decennial tour. The new horror story, he’s decided, will be Texas, which stood, this past cycle, as a powerful example of how reckless a redistricting process can become. That mangled effort also provides a stark contrast to the maps Hofeller helped create in North Carolina—­drawings that demonstrate how in the blood sport of redistricting, the most cravenly political results are won with calculating prudence.

For all the pissing and moaning about our divisive politics, and about our increasingly destructive “tribalism”—a new word that pundits will beat into the ground by Easter—this is whence the real division in our politics comes: covert finagling that devalues the individual ballot to the point where people determine that it’s not worth casting one any more.

Elbridge Gerry was a proud son of the Commonwealth (God save it!). His unfortunate legacy is largely the fault of succeeding generations…like, say, us.

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